ULSTER HISTORY CIRCLE TO COMMEMORATE ARCHBISHOP JOHN JOSEPH HUGHES

The Ulster History Circle will commemorate John Joseph Hughes (I797-I864) First Archbishop of New York, Founder of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 5th Avenue, by the unveiling of a Blue Plaque on Saturday, 24th June 2017 at I0:45 AM at St. Macartan’s RC Church, 3 Springtown Road, Augher. Co. Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

The plaque will be unveiled by Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland.

John Joseph Hughes was born on 24
th June 1797 to parents, Patrick Hughes and Margaret McKenna in the townland of Annaloghlan, near Augher, Co. Tyrone. He was the third of seven children. His father was a tenant farmer and due to circumstances was forced to withdraw the young John from school. He was sent to Favour Royal Manor where he was to study horticulture under the tuition of the head gardener.

In 1816 John’s family emigrated to Pennsylvania but it was a year later before the young gardener joined them. His early years in America were spent as a gardener and even whilst studying at Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland; he continued to look after the College garden. Ordained to the priesthood in Philadelphia in 1824, John Hughes was responsible for the building of St. Joseph’s church in that City. Consecrated as Bishop in 1838, he became the fourth Bishop of New York 1842 and the First Archbishop in 1850. During his fourteen years as Archbishop, he lectured to Congress; was thanked by Lincoln for his support of the Union in the Civil War, founded Fordham University and laid the foundation stone at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 5
th Avenue, New York.

His memory lives on both in Ireland and in New York. Archbishop John Joseph Hughes has a statue in St. Johns College, Fordham, a bust in New York and now a Blue Plaque in his native country.

As Chairman of the Ulster History Circle, Chris Spurr said, ‘John Joseph Hughes has the distinction of being the First Archbishop of New York, the founder of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5
th Avenue and also the founder of the college which became Fordham University. On the 220
th anniversary of his birth, the Ulster History Circle is delighted to commemorate Archbishop Hughes with a blue plaque at the very place in his native parish where he returned to preach in 1846. The Circle would like to thank both the Diocese of Clogher and Clogher Historical Society for their support towards the plaque’.

The Ulster History Circle is a voluntary, not for profit charity which puts up blue plaques in public places across the nine counties of Ulster, to celebrate people of achievement. A person is not considered for a blue plaque unless they have been dead for a minimum of twenty years, or would have reached their 100
th birthday. The Circle’s work on its Blue Plaque programme is carried out entirely by a small team of volunteer members, and the Circle relies on local authorities, organisations, societies, businesses and individuals to support its plaques as it has no funds of its own. There is no similar body doing such work through the whole of the island of Ireland.